A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a heat transfer labelling apparatus and a method of applying a heat transferable label to a hollow article. More particularly, this invention relates to such an apparatus wherein hollow inflatable articles such as bottles are decorated in a continuous operation.
Frequently such hollow articles are made in a two section mold producing articles having corresponding parting or seam lines. This invention also relates to an apparatus and method for indexing the hollow article so that the label is appropriately positioned and does not overlap a seam line. In this manner, distortions of the label are avoided, a factor particularly important when decorating labels including fine print.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous decorating techniques are known in the art, some of which include the application of a label onto a hollow article to be decorated. One of the techniques which is desirable in this type of decorating is the usage of a heat transferable label which includes a decorative predetermined design thereon and may thus be transferred onto the article or container being decorated.
The heat transfer process permits for multicolored designs to be applied to the container in a single operation. The heat transfer process involves the use of a release-coated carrier upon which the design to be transferred is printed. The design is transferred from the web-like carrier to the container generally by using a combination of heat and pressure. The principal advantage of the heat transfer technique is that multicolored designs of an infinite variety may be applied to a container.
Because of the heat requirement associated with the release and application of the label from the web onto the container, it has been generally accepted practice to maintain the container in a stationary position, albeit rotatable in the instances of circular containers, during the decorating step. This has resulted in numerous prior art types of apparatus which employ intermittently moving mechanisms for conveying a container to a decorating station, engaging the container while a label is applied to the container, and then removing the container from the decorating station.
In my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,569, 4,275,856 and 4,209,519, apparatus are disclosed which overcome some of the disadvantages of the prior art described above. In these apparatus, the articles and the label carrying web travel in two substantially parallel planes at the same speed to allow the transfer of the label while in motion. However, the articles decorated by these machines have relatively flat label-carrying surfaces.
My U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,935 discloses an apparatus in which bottles placed on a turret pass by a decorating station. At the station, labels from a web are transferred by a relatively flat and stationary presser to the bottles. In this machine, however, only a minor portion of the bottle surface facing the stationary presser can be used to hold a label and therefore the size of the label is limited. Thus, this machine is not generally used to affix a label extending around substantially the entire circumference of the bottle.